1) Over Memorial Day weekend, traditionally a heavy car traveling time, the Obama administration set another dubious record relative to not having a comprehensive and strategic energy plan and vision for the country, a plan that would reduce energy costs while protecting the environment.
May 26 marked the 1,251th consecutive day that the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline in this country cost more than $3 a gallon, according to AAA data. Recall that when Obama came into office, the average price for that same gallon of regular gas was about $1.89. Thus, during the first five and a half years of this administration, the cost of gas has gone up about 93% relative to today’s average price of just over $3.62 a gallon.
And given the Washington political class’s inability to think strategically or agree on just about anything, it is highly doubtful that the American consumer and driver will see any kind of breakthrough in this area in the near or distant future. Constantly high gas prices force consumers and households to divert their income and wealth to energy needs and not for growing the economy.
2) The next one I love since it proves that at whatever level of government a politician is residing, they almost always have the wrong priorities and work on the little stupid issues that no one really cares about in these time of high unemployment, failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, leaky borders, etc.
State senators in New York were hard at work recently spending legislative time on whether or not to make yogurt the official state snack. Let me let that statement sink in for a minute. Of all the problems facing New Yorkers, these buffoons are not only proposing that yogurt become the official snack of the state they are actually DEBATING the issue. You cannot make this lunacy up.
The following video clip from Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart highlights the best moments of this debate. Take note how one legislator actually wants to argue the definition of what a snack is:
3) In a previous insanity post we had discussed the idiocy of having people on the payroll in Washington D.C. that are actually responsible for dictating how street crosswalks are to be designed and implemented. I guess they did not think that local politicians and local citizens could figure out how to implement safe school crossing signs. Such a waste of taxpayer wealth on Federal bureaucrats that add nothing to anyone’s life.
But this type of transportation related idiocy is not confined to street crossings. When the Federal government gives back each state a cut of the gasoline tax that the states collected in the first place, they dictate that 2% of those funds be used or set aside for Transportation Alternatives Programs or TAP.
TAP options include such things as sidewalks, streetlamps, bicycle paths and beautification. While some of these things might be necessary, e.g. sidewalks, does it make sense to force states to pay for shrubbery and bike paths when the country’s infrastructure is falling apart?
Is it better to fix a failing bridge or to plant some nice bushes next to a bike trail? Every dollar for beauty is one less dollar spent on safety. For example, the state of Pennsylvania is required to set aside $27.5 million for TAP programs in 2014 and NOT use that money to fix the 5,218 deficient and failing bridges in the state. Insanity that some nameless, faceless bureaucrat can dictate the priority of a bush over the safety of citizens.
4) The Obama administration has had an ugly and expensive tendency of betting taxpayer money on the wrong businesses and industries over the duration of its term. It lost tens of billions of dollars trying to prop up failing alternative energy companies, almost all of whom had contributed money to Obama’s election campaigns. These companies include but are not limited to, Solyndra, A123, Beacon, Evergreen, Spectra, and others.
Another failed bet, a bet that wasted billions and billions of taxpayer wealth, is General Motors. According to a May 15, 2013 Associated Press report, this is what we are getting from a quality perspective for our billions of dollars:
- General Motors is recalling more than 140,000 2014 Chevrolet Malibu cars to fix a problem with the power-assisted brakes.
- The recall affects models with 2.5-liter four-cylinder engines and stop-start technology that shuts off the engine at red lights.
- The Malibus were part of a larger recall involving 2.7 million vehicles.
- The biggest component of the recall, 2.4 million midsize cars from model years 2004 to 2012, is concerned with brake lights that can fail.
- GM confirmed it knew about the defective brake light problem as early as 2008, about when the bailout plan involving tens of billions of tax dollars was starting to being formulated.
- This latest recall comes on the heels of another recall of 2.6 million smaller cars earlier this year for faulty ignition switches.
- GM knew about that problem for at least a decade, well before Washington rewarded this type of behavior with a bailout.
- The ignition switch problem, which can unexpectedly shut down a car's engine, has been linked to at least 13 deaths.
- In total, GM has already recalled more than 11 million cars and trucks in the U.S. so far this year.
In any case, wasting money on defective products should never be a government function
5) About 80% of the world’s heroin supply is cultivated in Afghanistan, according to a recent Sacramento Bee article that was summarized in the February 21, 2014 issue of The Week magazine. Yes, the country where we were involved in the longest warfare in our history, a place where we wasted probably hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of American servicemen’s lives, is now the premier producer of illegal heroin.
Under the Taliban, the entire Afghan heroin industry was almost totally wiped out. Under the corrupt government we helped install, the heroin trade is now worth about $3 billion a year or about 15% of the country’s GDP.
Thus, another incremental cost of our Afghan military venture will be the cost and destruction of heroin right here in this country’s streets from drug addiction. Talk about unintended consequences. But unintended consequences are a staple of the American political class who never attempt or never have the ability to think through what problems their actions might result in before jumping in without a long term strategic plan in place.
That will do it for today, but more insanity will follow at least into tomorrow. Until then, consider joining our movement to impose term limits on all Federal politicians, one and done.
Because really, how much worse could it get if we replaced all of the current politicians in Washington, the same ones that botched the whole Afghanistan mission, the same ones that took our money and gave it to their corporate cronies for nothing in return, the same ones that rate shrubbery more important than road conditions, etc. Let’s replace the current ones with a new set of people who might be a lot smarter and a lot more concerned with the future of the country than what we are stuck with now:
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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